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This week Cory, Julian and Shawn are joined by Hothead's David Heron to talk about developing Swarm!

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I can relate to the idea of playing through select character-driven RPG games multiple times (as opposed to doing so just to play as a different character class), even if the final outcome isn't that different. I did so with the original Mass Effect. I did so with Infamous. I will probably do so with DA2. I find it fun, like Carla, to role play through the different nuances of various kinds of personalities and choice to see how it affects things; to explore different sides of myself, in effect, through the choices these well crafted games with intricate stories and character relationships offer me.

I can also, sadly, relate to the idea of playing through a bad game for spite. Partly due to the expense of buying it and partly because I am very competitive, I slogged my way through Dante's Inferno, despite pretty much hating every moment of it beyond the first hour.

As always, thanks for a great podcast!

"Disobedience, in the eyes of any one who has read history, is man’s original virtue."
-Oscar Wilde (my ID on most platforms: disobedientlib)

My favorite episode in a while. The segment with David seemed longer than usual (I mean that I didn't time it, but the whole show was an hour and a half, so something was longer), but I was completely engaged the entire time.

NSMike wrote:

How did I live before digital distribution of old, cheap games?

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

You did live before digital distribution of old, cheap games. Now you just play games.

Best guest in a while, David was awesome. I enjoyed his involvement in the emails section where guests tend to get quiet.

Unless Swarm sees a PC release I'm unlikely to play it any time soon, but credit to a game producer willing to stand by a decision to potentially lock out gamers by making the game challenging. I don't often play games that I know to be hard, I'm scared of Super Meat Boy for example, but sometimes challenge and mastery is enough of a reward, that 'f*ck yeah!' moment is very sweet. Well done to Hothead for waning to provide this rare experience to players.

*edit*

Oh, and Shawn's casual, 'When did you play because I cleared your scores out a couple of hours ago?' was a wonderful smackdown for poor rabbit.

"Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." ― H.L. Mencken

On the subject of playing through games again, I am playing through Mass Effect 1 again for the 8th time. But the reason I am choosing to do so is kinda strange. I am playing through it for anticipation of Mass Effect 3, and I want to have the perfect choices. It will be interesting to see how games that have choices which carry over, change this issue.

On the subject of playing through games again, I am playing through Mass Effect 1 again for the 8th time. But the reason I am choosing to do so is kinda strange. I am playing through it for anticipation of Mass Effect 3, and I want to have the perfect choices. It will be interesting to see how games that have choices which carry over, change this issue.

That's most definitely not a strange reason around these parts. Everyone I know has done the same.

imbiginjapan on Vanquish:The difficulty is punishing but it knows enough to punish me while wearing stiletto heels and a push up bra, so I forgive it.

To be honest I dislike playing choice-driven RPGs again. The reason I haven't replayed the Mass Effects is that I know the plot won't rally change, and I'm worried it'll cheapen my time with 'Taco' Shepard.

With regard to hedgewizard's email about content for games being scattered across multiple platforms, what immediately came to my mind was the Dead Space franchise. From the very beginning, it was planned as a multimedia experience with the full storyline of the Ishimura scattered across games on multiple platforms, movies, comic books, and novels. For the most part, the folks at EA and Visceral have done a fantastic job of keeping each piece of the story self-contained: you can play Dead Space Extraction or watch Dead Space Downfall and not feel as though you're missing out if you haven't played Dead Space itself.

However, the recent add-on for Dead Space 2, Severed, seems to have broken with that. It features characters from Dead Space Extraction and expects you to be familiar with them to some extent, and it has a plot twist that, based on reactions here and elsewhere, doesn't make a lot of sense if you haven't read one of the novels.

Leaving aside the question of bonus weapons and armor that you guys focused on in the show, there's a real possibility that story content scattered across multiple platforms and media could degrade the quality of storytelling in individual games. And Lord knows there's not enough there to begin with that it can be degraded too much.

Microsoft has started doing some interesting cross-platform gaming with Windows Phone 7. In addition to franchise tie-in games like Crackdown: Project Sunburst, there are two games (Full House Poker and Fable Coin Golf) that let you earn currency for their Xbox 360 counterparts. Fable Coin Golf is certainly a more fun way to earn gold than playing Lute Hero for hours.

Great show. I think Rabbit just sold me on Swarm by comparing it to Tony Hawk 2. I admire the decision to limit the potential audience in order to preserve the overall creative vision. Although, it's probably important to note that I am part of the intended audience.

Squee9 wrote:

Ahh Dyni, I almost wish we were butterflies and liv'd but three summer days - three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain.

Really enjoyed the guest and the episode as a whole. A good combination of funny and fun, and the teaser for a DA2 spoiler show is revving me up to finish my playthrough. Looking forward to that episode.

FSeven wrote:
Chumpy_McChump wrote:

pPunc"tuat,,ion is: har'd!
.

So am I after seeing how readily you throw convention and rules out the window you big hunk of rebellious man love, you.

With respect to my poorly worded question, the aspect that most concerned me (and I think concern is too loaded a word) is when publishers extend or flesh out the story that exists in the major body of work. If I want to see a complete character arc, I think I'd prefer to have a contained arc in the main piece, and then accessory characters/world content can be described elsewhere.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

However, the recent add-on for Dead Space 2, Severed, seems to have broken with that. It features characters from Dead Space Extraction and expects you to be familiar with them to some extent, and it has a plot twist that, based on reactions here and elsewhere, doesn't make a lot of sense if you haven't read one of the novels.

Precisely my concern. There's a line (fuzzy I think) between expanding the universe, and spreading core story elements across distributed platforms.

People will always want to dive deeper down the rabbit hole for content they love, but what happens when key motivations and back story are only delivered in other ways?

Great episode. Loved the guests insights and as a result I downloaded the Swarm demo. I'll try it out this weekend and, as David suggested, buy if it's something I enjoy.

In regards to the "Multiple Playthrough" discussion. Besides Punch-Out, I don't replay many games but the Mass Effect series is an exception and very deserving. With lots of games the choice may be a binary good or evil but, to its credit, not with Mass Effect. Renegade Shepard is just that, a Shepard that lives outside standard practice.

For instance, on Omega during the Archangel mission Shepard has the opportunity to tase an engineer working on a gunship. Tasing is the Renegade course of action but given the circumstances it's also a pretty wise thing to do. I have difficulty doing outright evil things in games too but in Mass Effect renegade is not evil and often very fun.

You guys owe yourself another journey through Mass Effect 2. Starting over with all the DLC makes the game better than ever. Suggestion: Get Kasumi as soon as you can.

It has to be an odd moment explaining to a fellow airline passenger why Isabela has such ridiculous breasts. "Yeah, those give her an armor class bonus. Plus, distraction and misdirection is important for a Rogue."

I was enjoying Crysis 2 right up until I died and was forced to replay a 15 minute segment. I quit the game and just shook my head ruefully. Damn shame.

"Yeah, well, uh, just keep your Power Gloves off her, pal, huh?" -Corey, from "The Wizard"

Certainly, but the context was Multiple Playthroughs. The bulk of my comment was establishing why Mass Effect deserves to be revisited, I had thought. That's why I pointed out ME's Renegade options do not equate to Evil and are often just pragmatic and, most importantly, fun. But it seems I failed to communicate.